ResearchGate Sec usin ts daub te publ aver apse Contribution of engineered wood flooring components to its hygromechanical behavior 5 260 taal iesty ‘Acrtertfooningts pages upoadeddy ee Baton 3 May 20Contribution of engineered wood flooring components to its hygromechanical behavior Pierre Blanchet” Abstract. Engineered wood flooring is widely used in the floor covering industry, and a better knowledge of the hygromechanical bbchavior ofthe product and its components is needed to ensure good product performance for the consumer. The main objective of this project was to increase knowledge on the effect of the components of engineered wood flooring (EWF) on its hygrome- chanical behavior, Cold-set adhesives were used to bond the components, These adhesives were PVA type Il, polyurethane, EPI, and epoxy. The three substrates assessed were Russian plywood, high density fiberboard (HDF) and oriented strandboard (OSB). ‘The nature of the process used to obtain the surface layer was also evaluated. Slicing, pecling and sawing processes were used to obtain the sugar maple wear layer on the EWF. All parameters and interactions studied were significant. The type of substrate was the most significant parameter. Process used to obtain the surface component was also aa important parameter that had not been not previously identified as having an impact on deformation. Overall, epoxy generally yielded the greatest cupping deformation, with sawn surfaces also on average showing the greatest cupping (0.272 mm vs. 0.217 for sliced and 0.211 for pecled surfaces) regardless of the adhesive used. Russian plywood hada beneficial effect on reducing cupping (average of 0.172 mm vs. 0.271 for OSB and 0.263 for HDF substrates) B, 2004, engincered wood flooring (EWE) represented 79 percent of the European wood flooring market (Anony- ‘mous 2005a) and 52 percent in North America (Anonymous 2005). Along with the large market share came the introduc tion of a wide variety of products, This proliferation of prod uuets has been greatly advanced by the lack of standards for EWF in the United States, Canada, or European countries. Products are exhibiting a wide range of performance, and it is proposed that this results from the variety of components used by the industry. EWF can have 2 layers, 3 layers, ot more. They can be a plywood type with multiple layers (as in this study). They can also be made from sawn, sliced or peeled components and/or with wood composites (medium density fiberboard (MDF), high density fiberboard (HDF), particleboard, or plywood). They can be glued with thermoset or cold-set adbesives, ‘This multilayered composite is engineered to minimize de- formation occurring in the product when subjected to mois ture change, Selection of materials and thickness of the layers ‘were identified as the main parameter for controlling defor- mation by Blanchet et al. (2003, 2006) ‘The objective ofthis study was to assess the role of different common EWF components on its hygromechanical behavior, Components studied were thtee types of surface layers, three substrates, and four adhesives. Materials and methods ‘The construction used in this study is presented in Figure 1 ‘A 3amamathick surface component, a 9-mm substrate, and a 0,5-mm backing layer were used, Width ofthe prototypes was {65 mm, This construction was kept constant regardless of the component used to have comparable products. ‘The sugar maple surface layer component was sourced from either of three processes: sawing, peeling, or slicing. All of these are currently used by the industry. Thickness of the material was 3 mm rough and 2.5 mm finished on the as- sembled product, Sugar maple was used as the species for the surface layer. The author is Group Leader, FPInnovations—Forintck division, Sainte-Foy, Québec, Canada, and Adjunct Professor, Wood and Fore fest Sciences Dept, Woad Reseasch Center (CRB), Finite Element Intedisciplinary Research Group (GIREE), Université Laval, Qué- bec, Canada (pierre blanchet@fpinnevations ca) The author wishes to thank FPInnovations-Forintek division, NRCan’ Value to Wood program, and the NSERC Reseatch Discovery (grant no, 311736 2005) for ther financial support special hanks to Dr. Frank Lay- ‘er for the review ofthis paper This paper was received for publi- tation in July 2007. Article No. 10379 ‘Forest Products Society Member (GForest Products Society 2008, ‘Forest Prod. J. 58(1/8) 19-23,num lick ln ok eee ‘sean tick Figure 1. — View of the EWF construction used inthis study. ‘Three materials were used as substrate, First, HDF from Uniboard (Panfibre mill, Mont-Laurier, Quebec, Canada) was considered as itis an emerging product used in EWF known for its milling properties in self-locking tongue and groove, Russian birch (betula pendula) plywood was used with a con- struction of 7 plies (1.1 mm thick) bonded with phenol- formaldehyde resin. This type of plywood is widely used in EWF products on the market. Finally, a special oriented strandboard (OSB) made in the laboratory was designed for flooring applications. The goal was to evaluate the potential of ‘OSB in EWF as a substitute for Russian plywood. The OSB hhad3 layers, with 20 percent ofthe material inthe two surface layers and cross grain with the core layer. The intent was to have a maximum of fibers inthe panel oriented perpendicular to the surface component and keep some fibers oriented par~ allel to the surface wood grain to prevent warping. Face and core resin contents were 5 percent PF resin with 1.5 percent slack wax. The species used was populos tremuloide and the target specific gravity (SG) of the panel was 0.42. Four cold-set adhesives were considered. A representative of each of the following types of adhesive was selected: polyvinyl acetate (PVA) (type 1D, epoxy, polyurethane hot ‘melt, and emulsion polymer isocyanate (EPI). All of the ad- hesives are commercially used in EWF except epoxy. This last adhesive was considered in order to assess its potential as an alternative to polyurethane since the two are comparable in price. Complete details are given in the experimental design in ‘Table 1 as well as spread rate, pressure, and pressing time, ‘All constructions were milled tongue and groove for instal- Iation, Each construction was installed on cement board (Permabase) with a urethane adhesive (Bostik Best®), These ‘constructions were then evaluated for their performance when subjected to relative humidity variations. Constructions were placed in a conditioning room for 3 weeks at 20°C and 20 percent RI and then for another 3 weeks at 20 °C and 80 per- ‘cent RH. These conditions represent, respectively, winter and summer average temperature and relative humidity condi- tions in an Eastern North American house, Cupping deforma- tion was tracked in each conditioning step according to the following schedule; day 0, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 5, day 7, day 14, and day 21. The methodology used to measure the cupping deformation is described in detail in Blanchet et al (2003) Data were analyzed ina 3 «3% 4 factorial ANOVA with the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software using the general linear model procedure. Results Table 2 presents the model used for the cupping perfor- mance analysis, This table shows a highly significant (a 0.01) relation between type of adhesive, type of substrate and Table 1. — Factorial experimental design used in this study. Adhesive ws sbatte PVAHexion Chenicale DF "xB-90 KS-LE Spread rate: 269 gin? Pesled Preseure: 1728 MPa Sliced Preseng tine minater Russian plywood Sawn Pesled Sliced ose Sewn Pesled Sliced "Bpony Nacan BOND MASTER F2 sewn ‘Spread ae: 161 gin? in Pecled continuous fe Preseure: 54:85 kPa Sliced Pressing tine: 24 her Resiaaplywood Sewn Peeled Sliced Peeled Sliced Polyurethane Hotmelt Nacan WF sewn PUR-FECT LOK 34.777 4 Peeled Spread rate: 86 fo 128 gh? Sliced Pressure: 1550 MPa Rawian plywood Sawn Prestng tie; 30 seconds Pecled Sliced Pecled Sliced [PL Hexion Chemicals Wonderbond HDF ‘Sewn ‘WS799.55 ané Cle] Spread rate: 269 gin? Pesied Preseure: 1378 MPa Sliced Preseng tne: 45 minase Rassan plywood Sawn Pecied Sliced oss Siva Pecled Sliced Polyurethane higude Nacan 1222 Rasslanplywood Sawn Spread rate: 289 gin? Preseure: 1378 MPa Pressing tn 25 mine type of surface component in regard to cupping performance, ‘The substrates present the highest F-value (56.96), This sug- ‘gests that this component of the EWE has the most important impact on the performance of the components studied, This is confirmed by the observations presented in Blanchet et al, (2003), where the substrate was presented as one of the main factors in controlling cupping deformation. ‘A new interesting parameter was the process used to obtain the surface layer. Sawing, peeling, and slicing were consid- cred in this work. The ANOVA showed a highly significant